Good friends Rajeev Khandelwal and Aamna Shariff boycotted the
Hero Honda ITA Awards, held yesterday at the Bhavan’s College
Grounds in Andheri.

The Kashish and the former Sujal of Kahiin To Hoga were
conspicuous by their absence, despite Aamna being nominated for
best actress in the popular category.

Amrita
nahin, Aamna

Says a close friend of Rajeev, “ITA approached
Rajeev to do an item with Amrita Saluja (Roma of Time Bomb); and
Aamna Shariff to do a number with Gurpreet Singh (the current
Sujal).

However, Aamna told ITA she would prefer performing with Rajeev.
Rajeev had even been sent a contract, but after that, ITA
didn’t get back to him.

At first, he didn’t know who he was performing with; he simply
knew that they wanted him to do something on stage. He found out
that they wanted him with Amrita only three days ago, when
Amrita herself told him,” the friend adds.

Close to Rajeev

Why didn’t Aamna want to perform with Gurpreet? Says
Rajeev’s friend, “It’s not that she didn’t want to
perform with Gurpreet; she strongly felt that she would give a
better performance with someone she is close to (Rajeev); the
body language and comfort levels would be relatively superior.
In fact, she even questioned ITA about their concept. ‘What do
you want me to perform as — Kashish or Aamna? Surely, this is
not a Star Parivaar Awards, where you are looking at Sujal and
Kashish as a jodi.’ At a certain point, Star Plus
categorically told Aamna they did not want her to perform with
Rajeev.”

‘Not
well’ excuse

When contacted, Aamna would only say, “I did not feel like
attending.” And Rajeev said, “I was not feeling well.”
When asked whether he would have preferred to shake a leg with
Aamna, he chuckled, “Maybe next time.” Anu Ranjan
(president, ITA) chose to remain silent on the issue.